Vietnamese people have been scammed out of nearly 16 billion USD

Recently, at the 3rd anniversary of the Anti-Fraud project founded by Mr. Ngo Minh Hieu (Hieu PC) and his colleagues, experts at the National Cyber ​​Security Monitoring Center (NCSC) and cybersecurity experts discussed and warned about the situation of online fraud in Vietnam.

According to Mr. Hieu PC, a survey of more than 1,000 users shows that the situation of cyber fraud in 2023 in Vietnam is at an alarming and very complicated level.

In July 2023, the Ministry of Information and Communications identified 24 forms of online fraud. The most common forms are collaboration, financial investment, and emotional investment.

"Fraudsters will often approach victims and entice them to download Telegram and give instructions on the app. At this point, the chance of being scammed is about 95%," Mr. Hieu informed.

Mr. Ngo Minh Hieu is sharing information about online fraud in Vietnam.

Similarly, Mr. Vo Van Khang, Vice President of the Southern Branch of the Vietnam Information Security Association (Vnisa), noted that cybercrime in Vietnam is increasingly expanding. Currently, fraud is considered an industry because it is no longer simply originating from an individual or small group.

This industry has been formed and exploded in the past 5 years in parallel with the progressive development of science and technology. Fraudsters have textbooks, psychological methods, and modern tools to approach victims.

The Vice President of Vnsia assessed that the rate of Vietnamese users using technology is always at the top in the world . However, the level of understanding about the internet is only at the average level in the world. That is the condition for bad elements to exploit.

"The scammers use available methods, have funnel-like approaches, understand potential victims well and have a very high success rate. The people they target are often those with idle money or want to do light work with high salaries," Mr. Khang shared.

MSc. Philip Hung Cao, Strategist and Zero Trust Evangelist, said that nearly 16 billion USD was lost to Vietnamese people online out of a total of 53 billion USD globally.

That is a huge number to see that Vietnam is a low-lying area in terms of information awareness and internet usage. The industry, online fraud has a profit margin of 2,500% in the past year, and it is predicted that the profit margin will increase even more in 2024.

To avoid risks, users need to slow down by holding their breath for 7 seconds before clicking the mouse; or turn off all connections when not in use such as WiFi, Bluetooth...

According to the Global Anti-Fraud Alliance (GASA) report on the current state of fraud in Vietnam, a large survey with the participation of 1,063 Vietnamese people showed that 55% expressed confidence in their ability to recognize fraud, while only 14% modestly admitted to a complete lack of confidence.

Vietnamese people are struggling with scams at an alarming rate, with a staggering 70% saying they encounter scams at least once a month, according to the GASA report.

The severity of the situation is further highlighted by a worrying statistic: 49% have experienced an increase in scams in the past 12 months, underlining the widespread and growing nature of the problem.

Unsurprisingly, Facebook and Gmail emerged as the main channels for scams, with 71% of respondents encountering scams through these widely used platforms.

Closely followed by Telegram (28%), Google (13%) and TikTok (13%) occupy the 3rd to 5th positions as the most exploited channels.

Investment scams were found to be the most common, with 13% of respondents reporting them. Paradoxically, despite the prevalence of scams, 56% said they had not occurred in the past 12 months, reporting an average of 0.8 scams per respondent.

Source: https://nld.com.vn/so-tien-nguoi-viet-bi-lua-dao-qua-mang-len-den-gan-16-ti-usd-196240107143737926.htm